High school, every teenagers worst nightmare.

Well, for the brothers, it wasn't so bad. The school itself wasn't the problem.

It was Sans's feelings.

Of course he loved Papyrus will all of his soul, he was created for him. Before, it was a simple brother love, but now...

Did Papyrus always have that sparkle?

Sans wasn't exactly sure, when this all started. When he started noticing the smaller things about Papyrus, when he started making excuses to be closer to him, to touch him more. When he started appearing in Sans's imagination while in class, about a future together on the surface.

It started to get frightening, he wasn't supposed to feel this way. Papyrus was his own brother, this wasn't allowed, it was against the law. But Sans couldn't help it, everytime he got close to Papyrus, it was hard to think.

If this was a crush, it would've been easier to handle. However, this wasn't a small crush, to Sans's dismay. With each day that passed, Sans found it harder and harder to function with him nearby.

It was starting to effect their relationship.

The first instance of his crush blocking his judgement was when they were in school. It was just lunch time, like any other day, and they were sitting together again, like usual. Nothing was different from their usual lunch, so it shouldn't have been so different.

Their Mother still packed their lunches, both of them not being very good in the cooking department. Knowing what the two liked and disliked, she was able to pack them good lunches, which was really nice and lucky for them to have. That day, she had packed Sans a cheeseburger while she had packed Papyrus a salad, both of them sitting down in their usual spot with their meals.

"So, ya got a salad today?" Sans asked.

"I did!" Papyrus pulled out the container, setting it onto his lap. "It's a very healthy option! You should eat more healthy foods like this!"

"Maybe, but I'm really committed to my burgers and such," Sans said.

"Would you like to try some?" Papyrus had asked.

He just got this... look on his face that made Sans unable to say no to him. How could he? Papyrus just gave Sans this face that made him feel as if he said no, Papyrus would cry on the spot.

"Uh, sure," Sans said, leaning closer to grab his fork.

"Here."

Papyrus held out the fork in his hand in front of Sans's mouth, not giving him the fork. Pausing, Sans glanced at the fork to his brother, then back to the fork.

"Uh..."

How was Sans supposed to react? He couldn't just turn Papyrus down! Hesitantly, he inched towards the fork, quickly biting off the lettuce before drawing away like the fork was on fire.

"Great bro." Sans felt like he wanted to scream from embarrassment.

He had a hard time sleeping that night, it didn't help that Sans had to share a room with Papyrus. Thankfully, his blushing face from that incident was covered by a blanket as he faced the wall.

That's how their relationship was affected next, Sans just couldn't help but look over at Papyrus's calm face when he was sleeping. Usually, his brother was so loud and excited, but sleeping he was calm and peaceful.

It was cute.

Which is why Sans asked to move his room into the basement.

"Sans, how come?" Jandle asked in the morning, pulling out two cups from the cabinet. "I thought you and Papyrus got along well."

"Yeah, we do," Sans said, "I just wanna have my own room. I just figured it'd be cool."

"This is a sudden request," Gaster said, taking a bite from his toast. "Are you sure something didn't come up?"

"No, nothing came up," Sans said, "I just wanted to have my own room. I mean, it is a bit crowded in our room."

"Well, Gaster can finally get his experiments moved to the lab," Jandle said, "But you have to help him."

"Okay, sure," Sans said.

Papyrus was... less thrilled with the sudden change.

"Did I do anything wrong?" Papyrus asked.

"What, no!" Sans said, waving his hands. "Not at all! Our room is just really small, and I've never had my own room. I figured it would be cool to have my own room, ya know?"

Papyrus looked at Sans with a look that made Sans want to turn back on his decision immediately. It was a sad look of utter abandonment that shook him. Papyrus had always had a hard time making friends, Sans was the closest friend and brother he's ever had, so Papyrus was probably worried about the sudden change.

"Do you... not like sharing a room with me?" Papyrus asked quietly.

"No bro, it's just a pretty small room," Sans defended himself, "It's not like our relationship will change."

But it did.

Once Sans had managed to move into his new room, he decided the best way to get over his crush with Papyrus was to start limiting his contact with him. Their usual bedtime conversations had disappeared, Papyrus wanted to try and continue them over phone, but Sans had just pretended he was already asleep when Papyrus sent him messages. Now that they slept in separate rooms, they got ready for school separately, and didn't even speak to one another until they were ready and in the kitchen. Then, when Sans would get home, he would retreat into his room to do homework. Of course, Sans couldn't shut Papyrus out entirely, but he was trying to limit contact with him as much as possible. Phone conversations became their main mode of contact, Sans even starting to hang out with people from school to avoid being home alone with Papyrus.

It didn't go unnoticed. Papyrus tried to spend more time with Sans, but Sans shot him down every chance. Go to the park with him later? Sans already had plans with Grillby. Study for their test? Sans had told their Father that he would come with his work to help clean up the lab.

His new room was big and empty. Sans hated it. There was too much room to walk around and put his stuff, and it didn't have that sense of Papyrus that his old room had. There was no cleanliness, no indication of his brother. Just Sans. It was lonely, staring up at the ceiling with blank eye sockets.

Their Mother was the first to approach him. She always was the one who understood the boys the most, as Gaster didn't understand people compared to his machines. Naturally she noticed their sudden lack of bonding time and came to Sans' room.

"How come you've been avoiding Papyrus?"

It was straight to the point. Usually Jandle was calm and gentle with them, but after years of training Royal Guard members, she knew when she needed to be firm. There was no beating around the bush for this one, it was obvious that Sans and Papyrus had been growing distant.

"I just..."

Sans had trailed off, looking to the side. He couldn't hide it, Sans was avoiding Papyrus. Just for reasons he didn't want to share.

"You know he's hurting right now, you two have always been very close," Jandle said, sitting onto the bed next to him. "Papyrus has always had a hard time connecting with other people, he's only been able to closely connect with you. And that was after you were specifically created for him!"

"I know, I know!" Sans said, "It's just that... I can't explain, I just needed to take some of my time away from him. Just some 'me' time, I guess. Papyrus has always been there in my life, and it's been starting to get to me."

Saying it like that sounded like Sans had become annoyed with Papyrus, and not the opposite. It started to get to him, yeah, but in other ways. Romantic 'I'd totally go on a date with him' ways that weren't deemed good in monster society.

"I can understand that Papyrus has always been very eccentric, but you shouldn't ignore him and cause him pain just because you want to. Consider his emotions in this. You were his first ever friend, and one of the few people that talk to him at school. Yesterday, he told me that you had joined Bratty and Catty to skip school to get lunch. He had to eat alone, Sans. I was going to talk to you about this anyway, from that. I thought you guys had been close, what happened? What changed?"

What changed was that Sans grew too liking towards Papyrus.

The whole point of Sans being made was that Papyrus needed a friend. That's what his Dad had taught him in the lab, all of those years ago. To be with Papyrus. Maybe that original creation and need to fill in that task had set Sans on a dangerous path of love that he shouldn't have. His life, although his own, had originally been created with the intent of just Papyrus. That could have settled down in his soul as a natural instinct to love his brother, no matter what. And with age came the understanding of a new type of love that likely connected itself to his brother.

But what didn't help was that he was so cool! Sans had to work to ignore Papyrus, at this point it was becoming a chore. Papyrus was just so naturally warm and full of energy Sans couldn't help but love him. Who could resist that cinnamon role of a brother?

"Just, at least try and talk to Papyrus, for his sake?" She asked, "How about our date night tonight? You and Papyrus were going to have the house to yourself, if you want to I can rent you guys a movie to watch. I'll buy the snacks too, just spend the night with him. It'll make him happy. What's the harm in one movie?"

"Yeah, I could do that," Sans said, looking at his Mother. "You're right, there's no harm in a movie. I didn't have any plans tonight anyway."

Well, it looked like there was a lot of problems with one movie.

Papyrus had been ecstatic about the news. Rushing around to gather plenty of pillows and blankets, grabbing all of the snacks he could. Their Mother had ran out to the store before returning with some food and the movie she promised. It wasn't soon after that Papyrus already had a pillow fort set up, with a collection of food in front of them and the movie popped into the T.V.

That didn't stop Sans from being careful. In the pillowfort, Sans had set up pillows in between them, making sure that he was a good distance away. And he kept his upmost attention on the movie, keeping his jokes back and gaze on the T.V. Although he tried, he kept finding his gaze lingering back to his brother before he would have several panic attacks and return back to the movie so fast he probably broke something.

This was seriously going to become a problem if he didn't get over it, and fast. Sans really did like Papyrus, and he really did like being his friend and awesome, lazy brother. But this was going too far. He's had to throw away several math notes already due to his scribbles of Papyrus and his crush on his own darn brother, which was screwing with his grades. Not to mention hanging out with Bratty and Catty that day really drained him.

Papyrus really seemed happy Sans was watching the movie with him, which is why Sans couldn't say no when Papyrus asked to do it again. His parents were all for having more date nights, likely to get themselves some breaks and personal time from their very needy and demanding children. And maybe to relieve some of their stress. Sans saw what they bought for the date nights, and how they always rented hotel rooms. At least they didn't try to do... that particular activity at home.

Either way, movie nights became a regular occurance, while Sans' ignorance at school continued. He was trying everything he could to get himself over Papyrus, but it wasn't really working. Which was annoying. What would Papyrus think of Sans is the beans were ever spilled?

That's what kept Sans awake at night when his anxious thoughts crawled up his back, taunting him. He had to distance himself now so Papyrus wouldn't drop him, so they could still have a somewhat decent relationship in the future before he blew it.

Which was what he did later that week.

It was surprisingly at school, when he was forcing himself to hang out with Bratty and Catty once again during a free period he knew Papyrus had free as well. Papyrus had recently said he took up reading at the library about traps during his free time when Sans started hanging out with the others, so at least Papyrus had something to do. Sans and the other girls were walking down the hallway, on their way to a classroom to study for an exam.

The annoying thing about them was that he couldn't find any sort of joy listening to their rants, not like the joy he found whenever Papyrus lost himself to his own words in a conversation, ignorant to the world. When Papyrus did it, there was charm in it, and there was passion. Each word was spoken with a purpose, and Papyrus always believed in everything he said. With the cat and reptile monsters, though, there was none of that. They just talked about gossip and drama, and ignored people on purpose. Sans only really hung out with them to get himself away from Papyrus.

The two girls weren't ignorant on the situation either. And they decided to talk about it to Sans.

"Didn't you used to hang out with Papyrus?" Bratty had asked.

"Uh, duh! They were the loser skeletons!" Catty had giggled.

"Like, oh my Toby Fox! Yeah! But Sans isn't a loser, he's cool!" Bratty said back.

"You're right, it's that other dumb skeleton. The loud one. Who does he think he's impressing?" Catty waved it off like she didn't just insult his brother. "Good thing you ditched him, he's such a weird creep. He probably only talks about himself out of delusion. I wouldn't doubt the person who had broken into the girls locker room last year was him."

"No, it wasn't. Papyrus would never do that, he respects women. Not to mention he's a really nice guy, don't talk about him like that," Sans defended his brother.

"Catty is right, he is a creep. If you hadn't ditched him he would have dragged you down, he's such a loser," Bratty had hummed, running a hand through her hair. "If you ask me, he should be sent away to some other freaky school. Honestly, he has no friends, no one likes him."

Sans should have replied, he should have argued. Or he should have walked away, he should have ignored them and went to Papyrus to hang out with his awesome brother.

Instead, like an idiot, he made the worse choice.

He punched her.